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John Wheeler-Bennett, King George VI: His Life and Reign (1958)

On 21 February 1945, Opposition Leader Robert Menzies informed the House of Representatives that henceforth his party wished to be referred to as the Liberal Party of Australia. The announcement was met with howls of derision from the government benches, whose members interjected with lines like ‘a rose by any other name’ and ‘What, another name change?’. Menzies responded with a wry smile, saying ‘You may as well laugh while you can’.

The humour the Labor members found in the announcement came from the fact that the centre-right of Australian politics had gone by many different labels since federation, and after the electoral wipeout of the United Australia Party in 1943, they were now going back to the original ‘Liberal Party’ name used prior to World War I. The name had first been re-adopted at the Canberra Unity Conference the previous October, but even though parliament had sat in the interim, Menzies had delayed making the announcement – likely because he wanted to wait until the party had become a tangible reality outside of parliament. Following a second Unity Conference held in Albury in December, provisional state executives had begun meeting in January, the party had secured its first electoral victory in a NSW state by-election held on 3 February, and on 12 February the first Liberal Party branch had been formed at Mosman with Menzies in attendance.

But the delay also meant that the announcement was made on a very auspicious occasion, for 21 February also saw the new Governor General, the Duke of Gloucester, address parliament for the first time. The Duke was the brother of King George VI, and he would be the first and only member of the royal family to occupy the position. Menzies had been pushing to get a royal Governor General since the late 1930s, yet the appointment had ironically been made by Labor PM John Curtin, whose party’s official policy was to appoint Australians for the role. Curtin defied this expectation in large part because he thought that having a royal voice express Australian concerns to Britain would mean that they were more likely to be listened to – particularly when it came to the dispatch of divisions to the Pacific.

Such was the sense of urgency given to the appointment that the Duke travelled in a blacked-out passenger liner, braving the potential of a submarine attack, to arrive in Sydney on 28 January. The Duke was known as something of the black sheep of the royal family, with a reputation for heavy drinking that had come to prominence during an earlier trip to Australia in 1934. But the King still had great affection for his brother, and dealt with their separation by writing him long and revealing letters about affairs back home.

As documented in King George VI: His Life and Reign, the King had great misgivings about the need to hold an election in July 1945, dividing the country along party lines before the war was even over, when it had previously been united behind a national government that joined Conservatives and Labour men together in common purpose:

‘The outcome of it is uncertain as no Party may secure a clear working majority, which will make things difficult for any Govt, to try & deal with U.S.A., Russia & France, let alone setting up a Govt, in Germany, & with all the problems of demobilization & housing at home. Then there is the war with Japan to deal with as well. The outlook as far as I am concerned does not look very peaceful or restful. But I am not pessimistic about the future. We have all been through so much in the war together that the people will realize things cannot be replaced and rebuilt at once.’

The outcome of the election, and its removal of Winston Churchill as prime minister, likewise put great strain on the King. Who wrote:

‘I feel burned out… I have been suffering from an awful reaction from the strain of the war I suppose & have felt very tired especially down here but I hope I shall soon start to feel well again. Medicine, not even Weir’s, is of any use as I really want a rest, away from people & papers but that of course is impossible. I am perfectly well really but feel that I cannot cope competently with all the varied & many questions which come up. My new Government is not too easy & the people are rather difficult to talk to. Bevin is very good & tells me everything that is going on. The others are still learning how to run their departments, & their efforts have not made life any easier so far. Food, clothes & fuel are the main topics of conversation with us all.’

The struggles of the Attlee Government would prove to be a major talking point for Menzies’s Liberal Party. Who used the UK as a clear example of the extensive pitfalls of socialism in practice.